Injury Update

It’s good news on the injury front as things look to be clearing up ahead of the busy Christmas schedule.

Shaun Whalley, AJ Leitch-Smith and Joe Riley have all be missing in recent weeks, but Town Physio Chris Skitt is hopeful that they will all return to training in the near future.

Shaun Whalley had a set-back last week, but was back out on the grass today as Skitty begins to step up his work on an injured quad.

“We brought Shaun out because he had a bit of a quad issue,” Chris told ShrewsWeb.

“He tried to get himself going last week a little bit, but he was still aware of it so we had to take a bit of a step backwards.

“We’ve done our first session where we are really getting him going today (Monday) and he’s come through that fine with no issues, so hopefully over the next few days we can’t start stepping him up and start looking for a fazed return to training.

“He’s got a little pull in his quad muscle, which is why you can have that episode of going back a little bit. His workload’s got to be managed carefully going back in, but hopefully he will be fine.

“We’ve been through all the gym and remedial based work to start with and now we’re moving him towards the ball work, the running and the change of direction, getting Shaun up to his values on the GPS.

AJ Leitch-Smith missed Saturday’s game against Fleetwood Town with a knee injury, but Skitt is hopeful that it is nothing too serious and he should be back soon.

“AJ’s got a bit of a ligament issue with his knee,” said Skitt

“It’s one that’s quite common, so nothing that will keep him out for a long time, but something that needs to settle down and then get treated to get it back into its best possible shape.

“In terms of time wise we’d be looking at the next week to start stepping him up into training. He’s had his rest period and now we’re at a point where we are stepping him up to get the strength back into that leg to be able to allow him to return and not have any further issues with it.”

Meanwhile, Skitt praised Joe Riley as he nears a return to full training. The former Bolton full-back has been out for over a month after having surgery on his knee, but will be eased back into full training over the coming days.

“Joe’s doing absolutely superb and it’s testimony to his hard work that he is ahead of schedule,” said Chris.

“We’re looking at trying to build up the numbers that he racks up through the week in order to get him to a position where he can tolerate that load on the knee and allowing him to get his sprint distance up.

“His strength on the leg is absolutely fine and it’s more about building up to that full load. We have a lot of return to play guidelines, so with Joe he’s got to be able to single leg squad his body weight on that leg.

“We’d also be looking at the distance he can hop on one leg compared to another, running times and putting him into situations which he would normally do in a training week or a game.

“Currently our plan is to start a phase return on Thursday with a view to build into full training next Monday and hopefully he’ll keep kicking on the way he’s going and I can’t see any reason at the moment why he shouldn’t be.”

Skitt also confirmed that Jack Grimmer had returned from his dead leg and was available for selection.